Buddha | Buddhist | Buddhism

The following is a short selection from a larger writing project I am working on. Given the shenanigans that went on over at Barbara's Buddhist blog yesterday and today, it seemed like a good thing to post. In my opinion, making and receiving comments on blog posts should be treated in a similar way to how you would act with someone face to face. If you are committed to a spiritual path where

Buddhists and Integralists, like me, tend to be people watchers -- interested in others thinking and behavior. Now, there are a large number of Buddhists who specifically are not interested in all of this amateur psychoanalysis crap; they think that study of all this hoo-hah is very much the ilk of confusion and calamity we should step away from. But me, Im rather fascinated by how strange the best and the worst of us are. And l love trying to formulate a kind of behavior set or logic matrix that might explain the wondrous [or goofy or inane] behaviors of others. An aspect that I sometimes see in people that I find admirable I call situation saving. These are people who step in to save people when they make an unfortunate faux pau or otherwise say something ignorant or inappropriate or goofy. Now, I dont mean any of this in a kind of meta-sense. Most of the transactions that I observe are small; they happen, are forgotten and life moves on. AN EXAMPLE: This morning I stopped in a one-...

When I learned that Jay White, the founder of Dumb Little Man, frequently travels in his sales career, this immediately brought back memories of my own business travels during my years in pharmaceutical sales. I was traveling 25% to 50% of my time on overnight trips, sometimes for an entire work week. Although there are great health tips on this awesome blog, Im sure that for those of you who travel on business and even for everyone else who has gone somewhere on vacations, you will agree that its often quite a challenge to maintain healthy habits while away from home. Many people end up either gaining weight or losing weight after their trips and Im not talking about desired weight changes either. So here are some tips that Ive learned to adopt during my travels to help you stay healthy while away from home. Get Proper Nutrition While its much easier to follow a healthy balanced diet with home cooking, its often very challenging if you have to eat out for all of you daily meals dur...

Many of us who became enamored with Zen during the 1960s read Alan Watts. My teacher had me read Watts first book, The Spirit of Zen , which was published when he was only twenty-one (he wrote the preface to the first edition when he was only twenty). I could follow Watts somewhat but for me his book never seemed to crystalize the more rudimentary content of Zen (this crystallization was to come much, much later). Understandably, at the time, Watts was little more than a struggling student of Zen like many of us were. Much of the spirit of Zen that went into The Spirit of Zen came from D.T. Suzuki who was a Rinzai Zennist. Suzuki, incidentally, didnt care that much for Dogen Zenji and for that matter, Soto Zen. He saw Dogens just sitting, in a nutshell, as being altogether quietist and a form of mental stasis. (Having done a fair amount of just sitting I agree with D.T. Suzuki, in fact, without direct, intuitive entry into pure Mind there is no Zen and for that matter, no Buddhism). L...

"We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

"Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Over at the blog Ox Herding yesterday, Barry wrote the following:I've practiced steadily for nearly 22 years so you'd think I'd know better . . . but lately I've watched my mind whip itself into a frenzy of not-enough.Not enough attainment. Not enough clarity. Not enough enlightenment. Just not enough of something that I think is different from what I actually have.In the midst of my

Conscience whispers, but interest screams aloud. ~J. Petit-Senn Post written by Leo Babauta . Have you ever set out to start a new habit or goal, but found your willpower lacking? Many new ventures are foiled by the morning email habit, for example we want to exercise or write or meditate, but we cant resist checking out email for just a minute and then weve gotten lost, down the rabbit hole. How can we build the willpower to beat these bad habits? Reader Shanna Mann recently wrote: Id love to see how to get over willpower being the final word on goal-setting :). I was doing morning pages this morning, and in spite of enjoying it, valuing the clarity it brings, and being able to quantifiably measure how much more productive they make me, I find it so hard to write them instead of check my emails first thing in the morning. What the hell am I missing here? Shanna, of course, is talking about Julia Camerons suggestion to write three long-hand pages of free-flowing consciousness every ...

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, Today concludes our three week commitment to Peace Camp here in Las Cruces, NM. Each morning at 8:30 AM we offered meditation training to children participating in Peace Camp. It has been, as always, a joy to do this practice. Children are often the most receptive of students, although, on occasion (as was the case this year) there are a few who are such wiggle worms that they find the practice too much to bear. In their presence, my own mind wanders. This wandering mind catches me in my complacency and teaches me that I am only as far along the way as the next breath allows. Wiggle worm children became my most excellent teachers, then, offering themselves and their discomfort as questions to be addressed through my practice. Notice. Let go. Learn. Such a deal! Today: Peace Camp at 8:30, Morning Zazen at 9:30, and Evening Zazen at 6:00 PM. A reminder: Zazenkai from 9:00 to 4:00 next Saturday the 6th of August. So far, only one reservation. If...

"The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

"The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.- Hardy D. Jackson Editors note: This is a guest post from Scott Dinsmore of LiveYourLegend For the past 8 years Ive run experiments on myself and others to better understand what makes us come alive. This has taken me on ultra-marathons, to the tops of mountains, the bowels of bookstores, around the world and in front of some pretty fascinating people on some very deep soul searching. Finding passion and helping folks do work that embodies it has become a bit of an obsession of mine and has turned up some interesting results. It turns out passion is not as elusive as we think. Just like daily exercise leads to a more fit and healthy body, there are habits that lead to fire in your belly. If we are to cultivate such a lifestyle we must act accordingly. 1.Surround yourself with passionate people. This is the foundation. Most people dont believe you can do work you love because theyre constant...

Over at Zendotstudio, Carole has a good post on hope and Buddhist practice. She writes: The Oxford dictionary defines hope as "expectation combined with desire." Hmm, from a Buddhist point of view, we're not starting with the best recipe ingredients, are we? Hope implies something we want in the future. It may be something perfectly wonderful, like world peace or a new subaru station wagon.

"The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Hope, including faith and belief, often act as an antidote for all that is negative (no thanks to our human cortex) so that we are able to push back all the gloom and doom that bombards our brains on a daily basis. Where the glimmering lights of hope shine in this darkness, we come to see that we are not without solutions for almost every kind of problem facing us; nor are we absent a spiritual path that works, in the example of Buddhism (believe me, Buddhism works as advertised!). But then blow the winds of skepticism. Soon the small lights of hope begin to flicker; then they start going out one by one. The skeptic hates any kind of data or new possibilities which threatens to overturn his pet opinions. A skeptic is often very, very conservative. He doesnt like change or thinking out of the box. In fact, the skeptic will do almost anything to make sure that the data he disagrees with will never see the light of day. When the great scientist Lord Kelvin, who formulated the first and se...

Here's a new little 8"x8" Buddha called "Buddha In The Sky With Diamonds". I would have been more short winded if the Beatles had treated Lucy with more brevity. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I have been sneaking a little more painting time this week, stealing time from the garden (a thief with paint & garden dirt on their jeans). I have been so inspired by the wonderful art blogs

With respect, Today at Clear Mind Zen Temple we will offer meditation at Peace Camp at 8:30 AM, Zazen at Temple at 9:30 AM, again at 6:00 PM, and Zen 101 at 7:00 PM. In addition, we have a Peace Village Board Meeting at 1:45 and dokusan at 3:30. Please consider joining us for zazen and the Zen 101 group! Be well,

"Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

A guest post by Jean Gogolin of The Writers Clinic Show a man a picture of a pretty woman, says a Rebecca Coffey piece in the June 11 issue of Scientific American and hes likely to bet more at the craps table, run a red light, or get the urge to wage war. Why? For the same reason bull elephants charge and lions roar: To say, Hey Look what a fearless stud I am! The insight, if thats what it is, comes from a study by Lei Chang, a psychologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, along with colleagues at Chinas Hebei University. Chang and his fellow psychologists wondered whether clubs and guns are the human equivalent of antlers and horns, helping warriors to beat out more peaceable types in the competition for mates. And if they are, is that why conquering armies so often rape and pillage? Is that why even groups of chimps go on sex raids? Is it possible that the reason men wage war is not so much to spread religion or win territory as it is to spread their genes by impregnating fe...

At the end of a long day, you probably want nothing more than to relax. Youve spent hours writing emails, attending meetings, and commuting. Now its time to unwind and recharge for the next days battle. But heres the thing. Most of what we call relaxation isnt actually all that relaxing. Take watching TV. The television gives you an illusion of relaxation. You get to plop down on the couch and lose yourself in other peoples drama. But the relaxation effect is only partial. Your mind still needs to process the rapid-fire images and sounds. Your nervous system still recoils during a tense moment of TV drama. Surfing the web is the other leisure time trap. The freedom to surf from one site to the next can give you a momentary rush. But the more you get lost in email, Facebook, and Twitter, the more your brain and nervous system must remain on. The big idea here is that its not just work that drains us. Its also the way we relax. What does actual relaxation look like? Consid...

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, This morning we offer meditation training to the youngest of the Peace Campers during week three of our three week event. It is always a joy to offer this training. Children come to it very naturally with much less self awareness and perceived threats involved. When adults come to it, they often bring with them all the issues that have dogged them through their lives: judgments, worries, and stiff, unyielding bodies. We can learn a lot from practicing with children. Bring an open and unattached mind, allow your body to unfold and go in the direction of the training, and check your ego at the door. We call this Shoshin, Beginners Mind. Today at CMZT: Peace Camp at 8:30, Zazen at 9:30, Zazen at 6:00 PM, Comparative Religion Group at 7:00 PM. Be well.

For anyone who has been to an event where the Dalai Lama is the main speaker, just looking around at the audience, it soon becomes obvious that he draws people from all religions, including even atheists. Young and old, it doesnt matter. So what is going on? My hunch is that Tibetan Buddhism has come to represent spirituality, not religion. The modern world is starting to become keenly interested in spirituality. By comparison, it understands religion to be inadequate which its sees as being often too creedal (= I believe), sectarian (e.g., fundamentalism), dogmatic and superficial. This is not so with spirituality which asks us to look within, for example, by first being aware of our internal dialogue. If spirituality can be represented by just a few words they are look within . But this looking within is not about finding silence within us or coming to know God. Far from it. This looking is about what is most primordial in us trying to recognize itself and in so doing awaken to the ...

The root cause of purityis the lust nature,For once rid of lust,the substance of the nature is pure.Each of you, within your natures;abandon the five desires.In an instant, see your natureit is true. from Hui Neng's Platform SutraOver at my other blog, I have been writing a lot about romantic relationships. It's kind of an endless topic if you think about, all the things

"In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma

Buddhism has its own version of the ass's bridge (L., pons asinorum). The term 'ass's bridge', to refresh the reader's memory, is about the fifth proposition of the first book of Euclid, namely, "The angles at the base of an isosceles triangle are equal to one another." Believe it or not, some students of geometry didn't understand this and so, couldn't cross the bridge having to remain asses, as far as geometry was concerned. In Buddhism, the ass's bridge is the failure to understand that when the Buddha is referring to the Five Aggregates of form, feeling, perception, volitions, and consciousness, saying of each one, "This is not my self" his words are not meant to be taken as a denial of self or atman. Far from it. The Buddha is simply denying that his self is psychophysical, i.e., the Five Aggregates. In Buddhismthe old cannonthere are three ways the idea of self is used. First, there is the view that the self is one of the Five A...

With palms together, Good Morning Everyone, Yesterday was a good day, as days go. We rested, we walked, we visited with friends, and I painted. Practice can take many forms. In fact, all forms are practice. This is not to say forms are practice. Rather, anything we do is a practice when we approach it with an unmoving mind. When I paint, for example, I let the painting speak for itself. I sometimes wrestle with what it is saying, but in the main, open myself to its teaching. The same for writing. I was saying to Soku Shin the other day that when I was writing plays, the characters took on a life of their own and held lengthy discussions in my head. I simply wrote down what they were saying. Likewise, the paining is in the canvas. It simply has to be revealed. It is the same for all other activity. So, too, our true nature. An unmoving mind is a mind that knows nothing, only perceives, and allows perception to have its place without being mistaken for the thing itself. It leaves no trac...

So, the writing well has been empty over the past few days. There has been too much heat and humidity here in Minnesota, and my brain is just running slow. In the meantime, here's a little poem for you all, from Issa (1763 - 1828). even poorly plantedrice plantsslowly, slowly...green!

Buddhism entered the popular imagination of English-speaking societies for the first time in the late nineteenth century. The world of Buddhism described in these books and other ideas, values and images of Buddhism that quickly became public knowledge through various routes presented a challenge to this audience as it confounded the characteristics of other known religions. Alternately praised and derided for stepping outside the fixed religious categories known to the western world, Buddhism has continued to be a particularly contentious religious and philosophical category in Western countries. Orientalists praised the pure, rational and scientific origins of the Buddhist tradition while at the same time derided the belief system as nihilistic and pessimistic in contrast to the optimism of Christianity. The early interpretations were based on the historical context of colonialism in Asian Buddhist countries as well as fear of conversion to this new and interesting religion. The curr...

"I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma